Baths and Reflections

So the last post pretty much glossed over one of Liam's first major milestones - his first bath. The picture here is actually of his second bath because he wasn't exactly in modesty mode during his first bath, and I'm sure at some point in his life he will appreciate that I didn't publish a picture of his man bits for all the world to see. Knowing that Liam doesn't like being a naked baby, we figured that baths wouldn't go so well. Turns out, he LOVES baths. He just lays in the warm water and doesn't fuss or fidget. He even likes it when Thomas rinses him off with the crab cup with the holes in the bottom that make it like a shower for him. Baths also apparently make him sleepy. We've had naps in excess of 4 hours post-bath. Believe me, even if they say you only need to bathe baby every few days, if a bath gets me a four hour nap, we are having daily baths.

Being almost three weeks postpartum, I've had plenty of time to stop and think about my overall labor and delivery experience. First, I know I owe Aunt Debs an unbelievable amount of gratitude for serving as our Chief of Communications (among the many other things I know she did behind the scenes). Everyone that I talk to says how wonderful it was to get updates...and I know she played a significant role in keeping the crazy to a minimum. Second, I don't care what anyone says, no matter how hard I try to block out the events of July 31 and August 1, I will always remember how much pain I was in (and how good it felt when the epidural finally started working). There was no "magic forgetting" that happened as soon as Liam arrived that people talk about. Oh, it was worth it, don't get me wrong, but not something I plan on signing up for again (by which I mean 37 hours of labor, not necessarily another kiddo...that's TBD). Three, the final nurse in Labor and Delivery (my fourth one...I went through three shift changes during the whole process) was absolutely amazing. She never left my side, except for her quick lunch break, and did everything she could to make sure I was comfortable...and she got all the icky stuff - water breaking, fever, c-section...
all the wonderful parts.

Of course, I can't forget how awesome Thomas was. He got to see a lot more than he probably ever wanted to. I'm kinda confused why they would send a husband out of the room for the epidural (which, really, in the whole process was probably one of the most mundane things that happened), but not for any of the other parts. He could have left if he wanted to during any of the other parts (he toughed it out, though...or remained over on the side...he didn't always want a front row seat to the action), but they don't even give dads-to-be an option to stay during the epidural. Strange...but, whatever. Thomas probably didn't want to see that giant needle. I'm glad I didn't have to see it, but I guess it couldn't have been too big. I saw the (magic!) catheter that was in my back - it was tiny! I did the whole epidural thing twice - nothing to it really. Actually, the whole L&D experience sounds like a MasterCard commercial - Three IV tries, 2 epidurals, 1 c-section - bill TBD (I'm sure it's on its way)...Liam Weston - priceless :)